1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fabric tapes and woven fabrics to be used for the production of the fabric tapes. Particularly, it relates to a fabric tape comprising a main portion and selvage portions provided along both sides of the main portion, said main portion and said selvage portions having different woven fabric tissues, and it also relates to a woven fabric from which a plurality of such fabric tapes can be prepared by heat-cutting.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fabric tapes useful for ornamentation, packing or fabric print labels, are usually made in a form of a tape of a woven fabric having a desired width.
However, it is difficult to produce such fabric tapes efficiently. In order to improve the production of the fabric tapes and to reduce the cost for the production, it has been proposed to firstly weave a wide fabric having a width corresponding to a plurality of fabric tapes and then heat-cut the wide fabric to obtain the plurality of fabric tapes.
It is required that such fabric tapes have a good outer sheen and flexibility. In order to satisfy such requirements, they are usually made of a woven fabric having a satin or velvet tissue. However, such a fabric tissue is very much apt to undergo fraying.
For instance, in the case of a satin tissue, the warps and the wefts are not alternatively woven, but a warp extends underneath 4 to 8 wefts, then over one weft adjacent to said 4 to 8 wefts, and again underneath further 4 to 8 wefts adjacent to said one weft.
When a wide fabric having such a woven fabric tissue is heat-cut to obtain a plurality of fabric tapes and the fused edges produced by the heat-cutting constitute selvages for the prevention of fraying, the strength of the selvages is not adequate. It is likely that fraying occurs at the selvages when a force is applied to the tape or the tape is washed repeatedly or when the tape is subjected to sewing by a sewing machine. Once fraying occurs at the selvages, it tends to be propagated to the main portion of the tape beyond the selvages. As the result, the outer appearance of the tape is degraded.
Further, the conventional wide fabrics are woven to have the same fabric tissue throughout their entire width. Accordingly, the tapes obtained from such a wide fabric by heat-cutting, have the same fabric tissue at both the main portion and the selvage portions. Accordingly, such tapes have a poor outer appearance without any three dimentional features.
Further, in order to increase the strength of such tapes having the same fabric tissue of the above mentioned special type, it is necessary to use fibers having high strength. However, it is difficult to find fibers which have higher strength than the commonly used acetate and which are, at the same time, available at a low price.